BNO News

Obama publicly confirms existence of U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan

By BNO News

WASHINGTON, D.C. (BNO NEWS) -- U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday, for the first time during his presidency, publicly acknowledged that U.S. drones regularly strike suspected militants along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The U.S. government does normally not comment on the CIA drone strikes as they are considered to be a secret, but it is widely known that the U.S. government has authorized them. The use of drone strikes has increased substantially under the Obama administration.

Obama made the comments during a web interview which was broadcast live on the video-sharing website YouTube and social networking website Google+. Reports said the White House did not see or approve the questions in advance, and Obama appeared surprised when he was asked the question.

One of the viewers asked Obama's views on the controversial drone strikes and if he feels the 'many' civilian casualties are worth it. But Obama rejected the assertion that U.S. drones have caused many casualties, saying they are precision strikes which target terrorists.

"Actually drones have not caused a huge number of civilian casualties," the president said. "For the most part they've been very precise, precision strikes against al-Qaeda and their affiliates. And we are very careful in terms of how it has been applied. So, I think there is this perception somehow that we are just sending in a whole bunch of strikes willy-nilly. This is a targeted, focused effort at people who are on a list of active terrorists who are trying to go in and harm Americans, hit American facilities, American bases and so on."

But Obama's response was challenged by another viewer who asked if the drones send the message that the U.S. government is interfering in the affairs of other countries. The Pakistani government publicly condemns the U.S. drone attacks, but intelligence reports indicate they have regularly assisted and allowed the U.S. government to carry them out.

"I think we have to be judicious in how we use drones, but understand that probably our ability to respect the sovereignty of other countries and to limit our incursions into somebody else's territory is enhanced by the fact that we are able to pinpoint strike an al-Qaeda operative in a place where the capacities of the military in that country may not be able to get them," Obama responded.

The president acknowledged that 'a lot of these strikes' have been in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan, targeting al-Qaeda suspects who are in tough terrain along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. "For us to be able to get them in another way would involve probably a lot more intrusive military action than the one we are already engaging in," he said. "That doesn't mean that we shouldn't be careful about how we proceed on this."

Obama said he is looking forward to a time where al-Qaeda is no longer an operative network, but said it remains an issue to be dealt with. "There are still active plots that are directed against the United States, and I think we are on the offense now," he said. "Al-Qaeda has been really weakened but we still got a little more work to do, and we gotta make sure that we are using all our capacities in order to deal with it."

Asked on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney refused to say whether Obama made a mistake by acknowledging the classified drone program. "I'm not going to discuss broadly or specifically supposed covert programs," he said. "I would just point you to what he said."

Few details about casualties from the strikes are available, but allegations of civilian casualties regularly spark protests in Pakistan. According to the Washington-based think tank New America Foundation, as many as 2,680 individuals were killed as a result of U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan between 2004 and early 2012.

According to a report released by the Conflict Monitoring Center earlier this month, at least 609 people were killed as a result of 75 drone strikes in Pakistan in 2011 alone. The group has documented 303 drone strikes since 2004, with a total death toll of at least 2,661.

The U.S. considers the Pakistan-Afghan border to be the most dangerous place on Earth. The area is known to be a stronghold of the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani Network, which is one of the top terrorist organizations and threats to U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

But controversy has surrounded the drone strikes as local residents and officials have blamed them for killing innocent civilians and motivating young men to join the Taliban. Details about the alleged militants are usually not provided, and the U.S. government does not comment on the strikes.

Tuesday, January 31st, 2012 at 8:08 pm | BNO News | 1 Comment

http://www.facebook.com/people/Satish-Chandra/100000030432561 Satish Chandra

1) Stealth or no-stealth, 5th generation or 4th generation, fighter aircraft are as obsolete for India’s defence as bows and arrows. They can be used against neighbors such as Pakistan and China but the United States is EVERYBODY’S neighbor. It has already invaded and occupied Afghanistan, a part of traditional India and will expand its occupation to the rest of the subcontinent. I am India’s expert in strategic defence, the father of India’s strategic program including the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program and the world’s greatest scientist (my biography is in Marquis’ Who’s Who in the World, 2012 and earlier editions). The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan means the coast-to-coast destruction of the U.S. by India; see my blog titled ‘Nuclear Supremacy for India Over U.S.’, which can be found by a Yahoo search with the title, for what India needs to do. Russia and other white countries are U.S. allies. These are the enemies to destroy. All other enemies will be taken care of automatically. Conventional arms are worthless for destroying the United States. Nuclear arms to destroy the United States with a FIRST STRIKE — this is the key — are cheap and easy to produce with technology India already has. All the money earmarked for fighter aircraft etc., and more, must be pumped into research, development and production of missiles able to deliver India’s nuclear warheads — in the thousands — to the continental United States. India’s missile scientists & engineers should have tested such missiles to their full range decades ago — everything else, including short and intermediate range missiles and missile defence, is secondary and tertiary — but have not done that because of prohibitions by India’s C.I.A.-controlled governments. This must be done on a war footing; the first step is to destroy RAW through which the C.I.A. rules India; see my blog. Producing such weapons in the thousands and very quickly is important. This means that the vast majority of them must be land-based, including road and rail-mobile, missiles rather than submarine-based which take a long time to produce.

2) In the modern world nuclear weapons are the only weapons that matter. India has done a negligible amount of testing of nuclear warheads. India must resume the testing of nuclear warheads immediately, both of warheads already in the stockpile and of new designs including thermonuclear warheads. These warheads must have non-digital triggers that cannot be interfered with by microwave signals from satellites, as I have discussed in press releases included in GaddafiCrimeDOTblogspotDOTcom , IndianAirForcePilotsMurderDOTblogspotDOTcom , and JoinIndiaWarOfIndependenceDOTblogspotDOTcom .

3) The Indian Army and Air Force are worthless for destroying India’s number one enemy — the United States. Everyone in New Delhi is a collaborator with the enemy. But India’s nuclear forces obey Satish Chandra; he does not need India’s conventional forces or the rest of the government and citizenry to defend India which will be done by nuclear means, by the simultaneous nuclear destruction of New Delhi, Washington and New York with a warning that additional U.S. cities will be destroyed, with nuclear warheads already emplaced in them by special forces, if there is any retaliation. Five years later the coast-to-coast destruction of the United States will be carried out.

Satish Chandra